Trail Blazers' Lillard has spent a long time studying Spurs' Parker's game
The battle between San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker and Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard will go a long way in deciding the teams' Western Conference semifinal series.
For Lillard, he'll be facing one of the players he looked up to growing up. Parker caught Lillard's eye coming off a Finals MVP performance.
"Started watching him in 2007-2008," Lillard said, via ESPN. "Around that time is when I really started paying serious attention to what he was doing."
Lillard said he tried to model his game after Parker's, studying videos of him on YouTube.
The biggest thing I tried to take was his game in the paint. With him not being the most athletic guy and going in there and finishing over those people, he's still crafty enough to finish in the paint over these huge, big guys in the paint. That's floaters and reverse layups and different finishes. I'm a little more of an athletic type of point guard where I like to challenge the bigs and try to go over the top of him. So, for me, it was just trying to adapt my game where I can do the things he can do and do the things that a more athletic point guard can do.
Parker has taken notice of Lillard, and appreciates his game.
"Obviously he's a great player," Parker said. "He can do everything. He can shoot from the outside. He can penetrate. So we're going to do some stuff to try to contain him. You're not going to stop him."
In his first playoff appearance, Parker went up against an idol of his own, the Seattle SuperSonics' Gary Payton, and the younger Parker got the best of the veteran Payton.
Now, Parker realizes that Lillard is going to try to do the same to him.
I know Damian, he watched a lot of tapes of me when he was growing up. That's what I heard. I know he's going to be very motivated to play against me like I was when I played against Gary Payton. Gary Payton was one of my favorite players growing up so I was very motivated when I played against him in my first playoffs. So, I know that feeling and I'll have to match that energy.
The Spurs and Trail Blazers will throw the ball up on the opener of their series on Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. ET.